Flux

Smiling, she delegated her rounds and made her way to accident and emergency.

    Iain continued down the passageway, his map had long since been lost but he no longer had any use for it. The pull of the beast was strong; a constant thrumming behind his eyes. Indefinable, it no longer called to him to join ranks but Iain just knew it was close. The heat intensified as he made his way and an industrial din started to overpower the screams and groans although an occasional wail from close by still caused him to flinch. The infant still cried.
    Finally, Iain rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. Before him the corridor opened up into a vast subterranean cavern and a blast of intense heat almost knocked him from his feet. Sweat poured from him now, soaking his scant clothes. He gasped for every breath of thick air, the scent of sulphur was overpowering.
    Crouching in the shadows, the word which sprang to Iain’s mind to describe what he was seeing was hive . Everywhere he looked there was activity of some description; great furnaces and industrial presses were tirelessly working, churning out what, he didn’t know or couldn’t see. Rivers of molten rock and metal flowed, spanned by narrow bridges of roughly hewn rock.
    Vile creatures and demons filled the space, abominations rushing around, inflicting misery on men, women and children who were chained and shackled, ribs on show from starvation. From what Iain could see, it was the people and not the monsters who toiled, the latter being the task masters, brandishing cruel whips to force their bidding.
    Smoke poured up the centre of the cavern, rising, and Iain looked up to follow its path. The walls rose steeply, narrowing towards the distant top until ending in a circle of blackness which Iain took to be an opening. He realised where he was: Standing in the bottom of the great volcano and he remembered back to when he’d perched on its rim, looking down.
    A lake of magma filled the middle of the floor with an island of bleached white bone rising from its centre. If conditions had been more relaxed, Iain may have wondered how the bones didn’t burn to ash, but he didn’t. Nothing about the place would be able to surprise him anymore. On this island stood the great horned beast; a worm-like leviathan, far bigger than any other creature in the room and emanating evil from its every pore. Watching intently through elliptical eyes, the monster surveyed the activity in the room and revelled in the torment and misery surrounding it.
    Next to it stood an altar of pure black marble and atop this, naked and frail lay the tiny boy child, mouth agape as it cried, as if fully aware of his surroundings and predicament. Like a beacon, the baby was the one pure thing in the cavern.
    Iain stayed hidden in shadow, pondering what he was supposed to be doing to pass his alleged test, and how to even get ten feet into the chamber without being cut down or eaten. He was disturbed from his thoughts when about fifty of the prisoners he’d set free came stumbling around the corner behind him, having found their way by pure luck through the labyrinth. Iain pushed himself against the wall, not wanting to draw attention to himself or be revealed. They went straight past him and directly into the hive.
    A brief quiet and stillness of surprise descended before literally, all hell broke loose. Abominations of all description rushed forwards in a disorganised charge; some carrying weapons of rusted iron, others using tooth and claw. One of the demons, a horrid scrawny creature with pointed ears protruding from a grey, smooth bald head came bowling towards Iain’s hiding place.
    Picking up a rock about the size of half a house brick, Iain stayed crouched until the last possible second. He didn’t think the creature had spotted him yet but as it neared, Iain jumped up and slammed the stone into the middle of its head with all his might. There was a loud crack on impact and the demon fell to the floor, twitching. Not wanting to take the chance of it waking and resuming the attack, he bought the rock down again, hard, until the creature stopped its convulsions and Iain was quite sure it was dead.
    As it was the second time he’d managed to kill one of the things, Iain’s confidence built at the realisation they weren’t invincible. With adrenaline pumping through his veins, he felt strong. It was almost time for him to fulfil his destiny.
    After the ensuing melee had run its